SoftBank Agrees To Invest $100B In U.S. AI Startups And Infrastructure
Softbank Group CEO Masayoshi Son, alongside President-elect Donald Trump, announced at least a $100B investment in U.S. artificial intelligence and infrastructure Monday.
The funding will be deployed over the coming four years and is expected to create 100,000 jobs in the tech sector, The Wall Street Journal reports. It is unclear how SoftBank will fund the commitment, but it may come from several sources controlled by the Japanese investment behemoth.
The announcement came as part of Son’s visit to Trump's West Palm Beach, Florida, residence at Mar-a-Lago. The two made a similar announcement in 2016, when SoftBank committed $50B to invest in startups, creating 50,000 jobs.
“This is double of last time,” Son said at a press conference. “I said, President Trump is the double-down, so I'm going to have to double down.”
Last week, Trump said that he would streamline the approval process for projects with $1B or more in investment to the U.S., though he may be held back by environmental laws in doing so.
SoftBank is already heavily invested in AI. It is the majority owner of chipmaker Arm Holdings, an early investor in Nvidia and recently spent $1.5B on OpenAI.
The investment would only escalate the data center boom — the inventory of data centers in the U.S. is projected to double in just the next six years. Demand for chip manufacturers has skyrocketed, while billions of dollars in government subsidies have been created, aiming to incentivize their U.S. production.
However, power constraints, supply chain disruptions and labor shortages have slowed development.
SoftBank is well-known to the real estate industry for its investment in large CRE proptech players. Its involvement often pushes companies into hyper-growth mode, but that acceleration can sometimes cause companies to crash. Several of its proptech portfolio companies have either gone bankrupt, folded or seen their values crater.
The firm once owned around 71% of coworking company WeWork, which it privately valued at $47B at its peak. Softbank eventually lost $14B on its investment, it told investors last year when WeWork filed for bankruptcy.
Property management software provider Yardi Systems took over as WeWork's majority owner as the company exited bankruptcy.
SoftBank pumped more than $2B into modular construction startup Katerra, which folded in 2021. It also invested $1B in residential brokerage Compass before its 2021 IPO. Earlier this year, Compass reported its first-ever profitable quarter, but SoftBank has slowly disinvested in the company over time.
